Ants In The Tat

emberfusion · Post by **emberfusion** » Tue Mar 02, 2010 7:55 am

Ergh!

Luckily, they're only there for the food I put in for the crabs during the night. But, they are seriously annoying.

Anyone have luck with getting rid of ants from their tat?
I'm really not looking to do a deep clean - especially since they're only on top of the substrate.

I'm pretty sure I have a molter in there, but I'm not sure where.

Would sealing off the tat and spraying raid around the stand do any good?

::EDIT::

My molter has impeccable timing. As I was moving the ISO to the living room and setting it up, he surfaced. Freshly molted (Yay!). So, all the crabs are in ISO on the other side of the house.

I'm going to smoosh the ants I see in the tat and seal it off (duct tape is so useful). I'm going to raid around the tank and around my window & door. I'm going to let it air out for a few hours before thinking about unsealing the tat.

One question remains, how to keep them out of the tat?

Post by **wodesorel** » Tue Mar 02, 2010 1:29 pm

I put an ant bait behind the tank and so far they seem more interested in that than climbing up into the tank.

emberfusion · Post by **emberfusion** » Tue Mar 02, 2010 1:47 pm

Fantastic!

I'll have to get something like that.
Never really had to deal with ants in the house before, what kind of bait do you use?

Post by **wodesorel** » Tue Mar 02, 2010 1:58 pm

I like Raid products, just because they're compact delivery devices.

http://www.killsbugsdead.com/icp_ant.asp

The ant baits are peanut butter scented, so if you have other pets you have to make sure they can't get to it! I found that stuffed behind the tank stand my cats couldn't get to it, and also in the closets because they're not allowed in there.

The ant spikes worked really well when the weather warmed up. I just circled the house and the patio (which was INFESTED with ants) and they cleared up dramatically. The only problem was that I kept finding the spikes in the middle of the backyard covered in teeth marks. I have no idea what kept stealing them, but they never busted into them!

emberfusion · Post by **emberfusion** » Tue Mar 02, 2010 2:13 pm

Good.

Thanks for the help. I'll have to go get some of that.
The ants have either vacated the tank for now or they're just hiding in there somewhere, but I'm sure they'll be back once I put fresh food in the tank.

emberfusion · Post by **emberfusion** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 9:33 am

Ok.

Ant bait = mega fail.

What to do now?

tlivs · Post by **tlivs** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 2:40 pm

i learned in chem a few years back that ants can't detect bleach and a sugar water and bleach mix would be appealing to them and kill them
never tried it myself however

also i believe there is something to do with ants and cinnamon
i'll look for you for something

tlivs · Post by **tlivs** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 2:42 pm

i dont know this is the first link i clicked on but it seems semi useful
http://www.ehow.com/how_2310653_get-rid ... namon.html

emberfusion · Post by **emberfusion** » Thu Mar 18, 2010 2:47 pm

I'll try the cinnamon thing.

I'm about sick of waking up and seeing ants all over the crab food.

Thanks.

emberfusion · Post by **emberfusion** » Sun Mar 28, 2010 11:00 am

Ok, I've tried the cinnamon thing. No luck.

Its odd, the only place in the house where anyone is seeing ants is in the crab tank.

Just mixed up a little sugar water and added a splash of bleach to it. We'll see how that works.

Having a tank for two years, I find it strange that this is the first that I've ever seen ants in it.

It's official.
There's a full blown colony in the tank - despite my efforts to get rid of them.
Deep clean time. :/
Wish me luck

amycolette · Post by **amycolette** » Sun Mar 28, 2010 12:48 pm

meldamiriel wrote:It's official.
There's a full blown colony in the tank - despite my efforts to get rid of them.
Deep clean time. :/
Wish me luck

Bummer! Good luck with your deep clean!

Kathy Freer · Post by **Kathy Freer** » Sun Mar 28, 2010 2:40 pm

I found some ants in my tank the other day on a piece of melon. I just took the melon out and killed the ants and put the melon back two or three times until there were no more ants.Then I left a piece of melon on top of the tank and wrapped a piece of press and seal around each leg of the tank with the sticky side in towards the leg in the shape of an upside down cone. No more ants!!.Make sure no electrical cords are on the floor that they could climb.(I left the melon so I would be able to see if more ants came)None did.

emberfusion · Post by **emberfusion** » Sun Mar 28, 2010 3:22 pm

Yeah, my dad told me to squish them when I see them because they leave a scent trail or something. And I did.

They just decided to move the whole dang family into the tank where food water and warmth are readily available. :/

Got some Terro. Gonna leave my babys in the 10gal for a week or so. That'll have to do for now. Let the ants die and continue with the deep clean.

The last thing I want to do is take all the sand out and have all the ants running to other parts of my room only to colonize elsewhere.

emberfusion · Post by **emberfusion** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 12:06 pm

Well, I dug through the sand. Found the crab that had dug down on me. He's doing well. Freshly molted.

I put him in a little bowl so I could keep an eye on him and make sure he was okay.

Went to the kitchen, got a big bowl full of hot water and brought it back into my room.

Put my crab on top of the 10gallon - still in his bowl. He started chirping at me so I put him in the 10gallon and he got quiet and proceeded to explore and have himself a good ol' time.

I decided the best way to kill the ants quickly and without having to worry about them escaping on me was to pour that big bowl of hot water into the tank and raid them as I saw them running.

Glad to say the tank is ant free now.

But, I have a marsh in my tat.

Working on cleaning it out. Going to scrub it down with some bleach and let it sit out in the sun for a day (we're finally supposed to be getting up in the 80s this week) and then maybe rub it down with a little vinegar and let it air dry again. That just depends on how it looks/smells after it sits in the sun.

Definitely leaving some ant bait around the room as to avoid this sort of thing in the future.

Geez, and I thought I would have a problem with mites before anything else. Go figure.

Post by **wodesorel** » Mon Mar 29, 2010 12:10 pm

I'm sorry you had to go through a deep clean, but I'm glad you got all of them! They're most likely coming up through your flooring, so if you can make sure to spray in the basement underneath where the hermit crab tank is. I know ours are coming in on the opposite side of the house and are using the joists as highways.

I hate ants!